Kirsten Dunst gave an interview with Harper’s Bazaar U.K. and said some things that feminist site Jezebel called “kind of dumb”, if that holds any weight for you. Ms. Dunst appears to have some very old-fashioned views on relationships. Here’s what she said in the interview, via Huffington Post:
I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued. We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking — it’s a valuable thing my mom created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armor. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work …
Not like I’m a huge fan of Jezebel or anything (not after the Lena Dunham photoshopping fiasco) but I gotta agree with them here — this wasn’t a very smart statement of her to make. A woman can be feminine without needing “a knight in shining armor” and implying that a woman is only a woman if she stays at home and cooks is really effing ridiculous to say in this day and age. If you wanna be a stay at home mom, go for it — I’m not saying you can’t, and it’s a damn hard job on its own. I’m saying that women are capable of doing other things, and if a woman isn’t the stereotypical one Dunst describes, it doesn’t make her any less of a woman.
I understand you are trying to make a point, but reading comprehension…how does it work? Did you miss the part where Ms Dunst says ‘sometimes’? We all have those days when we just want to rely on our partner, to be our partner. Days where I will gladly make all decisions, and essentially get sh!t done because my wife, in that moment, needs to be taken care of. Likewise the times I need my wife to be Holly Homemaker. Does that somehow diminish her, or our relationship?
I personally think there’s nothing wrong with clearly defined, traditional male and female roles in the home, if that’s what both people agree on.
I work full time, and so does my husband, but I still enjoy coming home and cooking him dinner, and baking, while he fixes things around the house, even if I am more than capable of doing those things (thanks dad!). I just enjoy seeing him “be a man”.
I think it’s just a personal choice that everyone needs to make… plus I would never trust our home soley in the hands of my husband, he’d burn it to the ground while trying to make rice!
I think it’s just really effing ridiculous that people trying to stigmatize and shame people for expressing, ‘in this day and age’ what almost all women have almost ALWAYS believed and felt, for centuries, about their lives and what they want and need from men!
“Staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mother created.” Talking crazy shit, isn’t she? Who wants a woman like that???? Um, virtually everyone. Especially kids.
You did notice, didn’t you, author, that she first said, “WE ALL HAVE TO GET OUR OWN JOBS AND MAKE OUR OWN MONEY,” didn’t you? This is your idea of old-fashioned? This somehow ‘implies” to you that women HAVE to “stay home and cook to be a woman”?
You are giving feminism a bad name. Or maybe revealing it’s true motivations and goals.